Some components are sensitive to mechanical shock events that may cause damage to the component itself or to the data associated with the component. For example, large capacity data cartridges rely on thinner tape and finer track pitch to achieve high storage density. These characteristics require that the mechanical mechanisms in the cartridge and the tape path within the drives meet extremely high tolerances. Some of these new cartridges are very susceptible to mechanical damage which can occur when the cartridge is subjected to high impact, such as falling from a table to the floor. Damage can occur if the impact causes mechanical misalignment of components within the cartridge. When a tape that has suffered a damaging impact is loaded into a drive, the drive/tape motion can cause loss of data or total tape destruction due to these mechanical misalignments.
Thus, there exists a need for a device that monitors components, such as removable data storage media, for such damaging events and reports the potentially damaging event in response to an appropriate inquiry.